Editing Carmen (section)

===Premiere and initial run===
[[File:Carmen - illustration by Luc for Journal Amusant 1875.jpg|thumb|Cartoon from ''[[Journal amusant]]'', 1911]]

Because rehearsals did not start until October 1874 and lasted longer than anticipated, the premiere was delayed.<ref>Dean 1965, pp. 111–112</ref> The final rehearsals went well, and in a generally optimistic mood the first night was fixed for 3 March 1875, the day on which, coincidentally, Bizet's appointment as a Chevalier of the [[Legion of Honour]] was formally announced.{{refn|Bizet had been informed of the impending award early in February, and had told Carvalho's wife that he owed the honour to her husband's promotion of his work.<ref>Curtiss, pp. 386–387</ref>|group= n}} The premiere, which was conducted by [[Adolphe Deloffre]], was attended by many of Paris's leading musical figures, including Massenet, Offenbach, Delibes and Gounod;<ref name=D114 /> during the performance the last-named was overheard complaining bitterly that Bizet had stolen the music of Micaëla's act 3 aria from him: "That melody is mine!"<ref name=C391>Curtiss, p. 391</ref> Halévy recorded his impressions of the premiere in a letter to a friend; the first act was evidently well received, with applause for the main numbers and numerous curtain calls. The first part of act 2 also went well, but after the toreador's song there was, Halévy noted, "coldness". In act 3 only Micaëla's aria earned applause as the audience became increasingly disconcerted. The final act was "glacial from first to last", and Bizet was left "only with the consolations of a few friends".<ref name=D114>Dean 1965, pp. 114–115</ref> The critic [[Ernest Newman]] wrote later that the sentimentalist Opéra-Comique audience was "shocked by the drastic realism of the action" and by the low standing and defective morality of most of the characters.<ref name=N248>Newman, p. 248</ref> According to the composer [[Benjamin Godard]], Bizet retorted, in response to a compliment, "Don't you see that all these bourgeois have not understood a wretched word of the work I have written for them?"<ref>Dean 1965, p. 116</ref> In a different vein, shortly after the work had concluded, Massenet sent Bizet a congratulatory note: "How happy you must be at this time—it's a great success!"<ref>Curtiss, pp. 395–396</ref>

The general tone of the next day's press reviews ranged from disappointment to outrage. The more conservative critics complained about "Wagnerism" and the subordination of the voice to the noise of the orchestra.<ref name="Dean 1965, p. 117">Dean 1965, p. 117</ref> There was consternation that the heroine was an amoral seductress rather than a woman of virtue;<ref>Steen, pp. 604–605</ref> Galli-Marié's interpretation of the role was described by one critic as "the very incarnation of vice".<ref name="Dean 1965, p. 117" /> Others compared the work unfavourably with the traditional Opéra-Comique repertoire of [[Daniel Auber|Auber]] and [[François-Adrien Boieldieu|Boieldieu]]. Léon Escudier in ''L'Art Musical'' called ''Carmen''{{'}}s music "dull and obscure{{nbs}}... the ear grows weary of waiting for the cadence that never comes."<ref>Dean 1965, p. 118</ref> It seemed that Bizet had generally failed to fulfill expectations, both of those who (given Halévy's and Meilhac's past associations) had expected something in the Offenbach mould, and of critics such as Adolphe Jullien who had anticipated a [[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]] music drama. Among the few supportive critics was the poet [[Théodore de Banville]]; writing in ''Le National'', he applauded Bizet for presenting a drama with real men and women instead of the usual Opéra-Comique "puppets".<ref>Curtiss, pp. 408–409</ref>

In its initial run at the Opéra-Comique, ''Carmen'' provoked little public enthusiasm; it shared the theatre for a while with [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]'s much more popular [[Requiem (Verdi)|''Requiem'']].<ref>Curtiss, p. 379</ref> ''Carmen'' was often performed to half-empty houses, even when the management gave away large numbers of tickets.<ref name=Grove /> Early on 3 June, the day after the opera's 33rd performance, Bizet died suddenly of heart disease, at the age of 36. It was his wedding anniversary. That night's performance was cancelled; the tragic circumstances brought a temporary increase in public interest during the brief period before the season ended.<ref name=OMO /> Du Locle brought ''Carmen'' back in November 1875, with the original cast, and it ran for a further 12 performances until 15 February 1876 to give a year's total for the original production of 48.<ref name=C427>Curtiss, pp. 427–428</ref> Among those who attended one of these later performances was [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], who wrote to his benefactor, [[Nadezhda von Meck]]: "''Carmen'' is a masterpiece in every sense of the word{{nbs}}... one of those rare creations which expresses the efforts of a whole musical epoch."<ref>Weinstock, p. 115</ref> After the final performance, ''Carmen'' was not seen in Paris again until 1883.<ref name=Grove />